KEMU online symposium on healthcare, education

LAHORE: The King Edward Medical College Alumni Association of United Kingdom (KEMCA UK) in collaboration with King Edward Medical University (KEMU) organised KEMCA UK 3rd Universal Healthcare and Education Symposium virtually on Sunday. KEMU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Khalid Masood Gondal in cooperation with KEMCA UK President Dr Muhammad Tufail and Secretary Dr Tabinda Dugal hosted the event, while Programme Director Dr Athar Saeed conducted the symposium on behalf of KEMCA UK. The highlight of the symposium was a presentation on girls’ education by youngest Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai and her father Ziauddin Yousafzai. Besides, a live debate on Medical Teaching Institution Reforms was held between Dr Faisal Sultan, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health, and Dr Ashraf Nizami, President Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), Lahore, followed by rebuttals and explanations on certain reservations. The symposium covered the topics of Service Development, Health Financing, Infections/Vaccination and Universal Education. On topic of Service Development, Dr Aasim Yusuf covered the subject of “Health Reform in KP, structure, legislation and implementation” and Dr Obaid Ullah spoke on “Health reform in KP, impact on personnel and service delivery”. Later, Dr Faisal Sultan spoke for and Dr Ashraf Nizami against on “MTI reforms improve service”, which was followed by voting on the subject by the virtual participants. Out of 250 virtual participants of the symposium, only 40 per cent took part in the voting. Out of the total votes cast, a total of 54 per cent cast vote in favour and 15 per cent against MTI reforms, while 31 per cent were not sure if the MTI reforms will bring improvement in service delivery.

The topic of Health Financing covered subjects of “The financing of the NHS” by Mahmood Adil, “Health insurance models, most suited for Pakistan” by Jishnu Das, and “Universal healthcare, financing models for Pakistan” by Dr Sania Nishtar.

The topic of Infections/Vaccination covered subjects of “Covid modelling for the non- statistician; how did we get it right” by Zafar Yasin, “Readiness of Pakistan for COVID vaccines” by Dr Assad Hafeez, “Hepatitis C eradication by 2030, Insights for Pakistan” by Graham Foster, “Hepatitis C eradication - Are we on course for 2030?” by Huma Qureshi, “Hepatitis C eradication, prospects and strategy in the provinces and the country” by Ghias un Nabi Tayyab, and “Hepatitis C eradication, lessons from Sind” by Saad Niaz.

After the outstanding success of the first two symposia, the world’s leading public health experts, health economists and educationists participated in the online symposium to talk about improving health and education access to Pakistani citizens. Pakistani medical professionals, home and abroad, are keen to develop and be part of universal healthcare provision in order to enable Pakistan to catch up with the rest of the nations in the region and in the world.

Prof Khalid Masood Gondal and Muhammad Tufail gave away poster prizes.- Earlier story on P14